Santa Clara, Calif. – May 31, 2017— Avaya Inc. today announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved the sale of Avaya’s Networking business to Extreme Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR) (“Extreme”) for a total transaction value of approximately $100 million, subject to adjustments.
The sale is subject to customary closing conditions and certain post-closing purchase price adjustments.
Commenting on the announcement, Avaya Networking SVP and GM Marc Randall said:
"This is great news. The Avaya networking business will become part of a company exclusively focused on networking and addressing the needs of our networking customers. By combining Avaya Networking’s innovative products and solutions with Extreme’s industry leading portfolio, we will enable customers to compete in new ways with more advanced and competitive solutions.
"As we work through integration planning, it is business as usual. We will work closely with our customers, partners and stakeholders while continuing to meet their needs for secure, high-performance networking solutions," Randall said. "Through deal close and beyond, we will deliver on our stated customer commitments and maintain high levels of service and support. We will ensure our customers can fully leverage their existing Avaya investment as they benefit from the complementary capabilities of the Avaya and the Extreme portfolio of products and services."
Partners also benefit from this announcement.
“Avaya channel partners will benefit by working with a vendor focused on the networking space and by having access to a more competitive end-to-end portfolio” said David Raftery, Managing Partner, Integration Partners. “The combined portfolio capabilities of Extreme and Avaya will offer the marketplace industry-leading solutions as companies address digital transformation."
The transaction is expected to close on or shortly after July 1, 2017.
About Avaya
Avaya enables the mission critical, real-time communication applications of the world’s most important operations. As the global leader in delivering superior communications experiences, Avaya provides the most complete portfolio of software and services for contact center and unified communications with integrated, secure networking— offered on premises, in the cloud or a hybrid. Today’s digital world requires some form of communications enablement, and no other company is better positioned to do this than Avaya. For more information visit www.avaya.com
Cautionary Note Regarding the Chapter 11 Cases
The Company’s security holders are cautioned that trading in securities of the Company during the pendency of these Chapter 11 cases will be highly speculative and will pose substantial risks. It is possible some or all of the Company’s currently outstanding securities may be cancelled and extinguished upon confirmation of a restructuring plan by the Bankruptcy Court. In such an event, the Company’s security holders would not be entitled to receive or retain any cash, securities or other property on account of their cancelled securities. Trading prices for the Company’s securities may bear little or no relation to actual recovery, if any, by holders thereof in the Company’s Chapter 11 cases. Accordingly, the Company urges extreme caution with respect to existing and future investments in its securities.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains certain forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," “our vision,” "plan," "potential," "preliminary," "predict," "should," "will," or “would” or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or other comparable terminology and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company’s expected motions to be filed in the Chapter 11 proceeding and the dispositions of such motions, continued operations and customer and supplier programs while in a Chapter 11 proceeding, cash needed to support our operations while in a Chapter 11 proceeding, ability to lower debt and interest payments, ability to operate while in a Chapter 11 proceeding, ability to pay our creditors, credit rating and ability to manage its pension obligations. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, including, but not limited to: the actions and decisions of our creditors and other third parties with interests in the Chapter 11 cases; our ability to maintain liquidity to fund our operations during the Chapter 11 cases; our ability to obtain Bankruptcy Court approvals in connection with the Chapter 11 cases; our ability to consummate any transactions once approved by the Bankruptcy Court, including the sale of our Networking business, and the time to consummation of such transactions; adjustments in the calculation of financial results for the quarter or year end, or the application of accounting principles; discovery of new information that alters expectations about financial results or impacts valuation methodologies underlying financial results; accounting changes required by United States generally accepted accounting principles; and other factors affecting the Company detailed from time to time in the Company’s filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov and in particular, our 2015 Form 10-K filed with the SEC on November 23, 2015. We caution you that the list of important factors included in our SEC filings may not contain all of the material factors that are important to you. In addition, in light of these risks and uncertainties, the matters referred to in the forward-looking statements contained in this document may not in fact occur. Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.
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